1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for managing data collected from an image forming device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming device such as copy machine generally adopts a method for counting actual use records of printing and charging according to use of the image forming device. For example, a count server installed in an intranet collects record information from a plurality of devices and stores the record information therein. The count server searches for the actual use records of a user to be charged from data of all record information, counts the use records, and then charges therefor.
Further, a method for efficiently searching data is discussed (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-207413). According to this method, databases are chronologically separated and stored according to a time when data is created. A user designates information that can specify the database when searching the data to narrow down an area of the specified database as a searching object. And then, search is performed.
On the other hand, in companies, the data has been typically managed by servers in the intranet of their own companies. However, when the data to be managed is increased, management and operation of the server takes a lot of works, for example, and storages are to be increased. To address this situation, regarding a method for storing the data, services (storage service) for providing the storages (region for storing the data) on the internet have become popular. The user can use this storage service to store the data in the storage on the internet.
By using the storage service, the companies can store the data without directly managing the actual storage server. For example, even if a data size that can be used is fixed by a contract for the storage service, the user can easily increase the storage, by updating the contract, thereby reducing management works.
Since large companies have an enormous number of devices to be counted, the record information to be collected can be also enormous. When a system providing the above-described storage service subsequently stores the record information to be collected, the storage of the enormous data may be separately disposed in a plurality of devices (i.e., servers). However, when the data is separately disposed in the storage regions of the plurality of devices, performance for searching and collecting the data from the system can be deteriorated.
The actual use records may be counted for various purposes, and different types of data may be collectively acquired at a time depending on the purpose. For example, when a specified user is to be charged, the data of the user's actual use records is to be acquired. On the other hand, when all actual use records are to be counted in a specified period, the actual use records in the period are to be acquired. Thus, when the actual use records are to be counted, performance for searching and acquiring the data while the storage service described above is being used may cause some issues.
According to the technique as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-207413 described above, when performing search, the user is to designate information that can specify the database. Thus, since the user may need to recognize the location of the data to be acquired, a merit that the user does not have to perform operation or management by using the above-described storage service, is reduced.